Sunday, November 27, 2022

The gang goes to the Umbra

• We get back in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday, with Ethan, to have him take a look at some of the papers and whatnot we've compiled, and give him an opportunity to rest at a balefire
• We all sleep in late so are stuck in the freehold for the day
• I get Agnes to find a signed copy of Clifford the Big Red Dog on eBay, and she buys it for $25…and I buy it from her for $50 (with an IOU that I promise to pay with my winnings from the latest round of World Cup bets I've placed with Paul)
• Sunday night Moira takes Ethan back through the courtyard and to the door to his place

Monday, November 28, 2022

• Email exchanges with Dreamcatcher and Paul happen
  • I forward the conversation with Paul to the rest of the group
  • Agnes tells me she knows Chatterjee, and contacts him on her work Slack and asks him to lunch
• Agnes is very blunt in talking to him (telling him we need to get to the Umbra, we were told that term by a werewolf, says a bookie named Paul said he was a Void Engineer, we had a vision and need to stop an apocalypse)
  • He definitely thinks we're Hunters
  • He agrees to help, and could put something together by end of the week, but says that having "a native guide" (read: werewolf) to get us to the phoenix would be best
  • He wants to meet us, and have at least Agnes meet some of his associates

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

• We go talk to Dreamcatcher about the plan, and her being our "native guide" and taking a tracking beacon

Friday, December 02, 2022

• We go to meet Chatterjee at an innocuous office building in Technology Park in Norcross
  • There are a number of other guys there, but they don't seem to feel as "powerful" as Chatterjee (read: a bunch of non-Awakened tech acolytes)
• He tells us that there is something anomalous on the scan as he's prepping us, something that's more "dense"
  • It's our keys
  • We decide to get Pneumatic to come and get the keys and take them back to the freehold
• The device he uses is basically a dressed up Gravitron ride, but it gets us to the Umbra
  • We arranged to meet Dreamcatcher at the Civil Serpent's location and arrive there as expected, seeing a strange version of it and the landscape around it
  • Chatterjee doesn't seem to see it as we are, talking about a "waystation on a distant world"
  • Dreamcatcher shoes us dressed differently, and appreciably taller and more buff
  • Chatterjee talks with Dreamcatcher who assures him she can take us back, so he takes the beacon back with him, as he acknowledges it could attract things
• Dreamcatcher takes us to a place she's prepared with a bonfire and various ritual implements and does a rite to summon a spirit to guide us to the phoenix
  • After a while, we realize there is an indistinct humanoid figure, hanging upside down in a tree (like the hanged man from the tarot)
  • Dreamcatcher seems surprised that the spirit looks like this, but offers it some gnosis infused food
  • He flourishes a tarot card, the moon, and gestures towards the gibbous moon in the sky
  • He then adds a star (Galliard - storyteller) card to his hand, and Dreamcatchers says some stuff about the moon phases and the garou auspices, showing temperance (Philodox - judges), the magician (Ragabash - trickster), strength (Ahroun - warrior), the high priestess (Theurge - shaman)
    • We piece together that the five of us will fit into one of these roles, and then he turns into a raven and flies off and we follow
    • It's a quest we're on
• We follow the hanged man/raven into a deeper bit of the Umbra, as we go through the trees and instead of finding ourselves on the street we should, find ourselves before a large lake
  • The lake is perfectly placid, surrounded by trees and reflects the moon, stars, and trees
  • It takes us a while to notice, but our reflections are showing not as ourselves, but as a bunch of sheep (Aoife and I are black sheep, the other three are white) being herded along by a dog
    • When we notice, the raven proffers the hermit card, and then the temperance, star, and strength cards
  • I don't notice anything, but Agnes first, then the others notice the silhouette of a black lion
  • I tell what I know about the Nemean lion, and why we don't have anything to fear, as we're all here together, and we won't leave any one of us to be picked off, and besides we're not defenseless sheep, and can defend ourselves
    • A tarot card of the star appears like a badge on my chest, and the lion goes slinking off
• The raven/hanged man turns from the banks of the lake up a path between the trees